A variety of lamps are in common use for lighting streets and squares, as are also many types of plates for road signs or for advertising purposes generally.
Unless such signs are situated close to a source of light, after sundown they become illeggible or simply go unnoticed.
In view of their importance, however, the fact of their being barely visible may constitute serious inconvenience.
The provision of separate lighting for these signs would generally be either too costly or unpractical because of the damage caused to them by weather conditions.
The above disclosure suggests a solution to these problems offering considerable economic and practical advantages as will now be explained.
Subject of the invention is a horizontal street lamp presenting an oblong concave structure that houses a source of light with a downward facing mouth to which is applied a substantially vertical metal sheet illuminated by the source of light so that it becomes a sort of plate for road signs, for publicity messages or for decorative purposes.
The lamp may be slightly out of the vertical, preferably at an angle of about 30xc2x0.
The source of light is a lamp laid longitudinally inside the concave structure and projecting from a longitudinal arm.
A decorative moulding may be placed on top of the concave structure.
In one type of execution the vertical sheet is rectangular and is fitted into a rectangular frame substantially in the form of a squared xe2x80x9cUxe2x80x9d, fixed uppermost to a narrow oblong plate whose shape and size correspond to those of the longitudinal area inside the mouth. Said frame presents a cavity whose cross section is substantially that of a squared xe2x80x9cUxe2x80x9d on the three sides, facing inwards at the position of an axial slit in said plate.
The internal dimensions of the cavity and of the slit are such as to permit the sheet to be taken out and replaced with another. The arrow oblong plate may be advantageously placed on the longitudinal axis of the mouth so that the vertical sheet is lit up by the source of light inside the concave structure, through the lateral longitudinal areas of said mouth left free by said longitudinal plate. These lateral areas left free by the longitudinal plate are closed by a pair of wing-shaped extensions that allow light to pass and are fixed at the longitudinal edges of said plate.
Advantageously the frame is fixed to the mouth of the concave structure by two screws which, passing through a hole made for each one at the two ends of the oblong plate left free of the frame, screw into threaded holes made in a bracket fixed to each internal end of the mouth.
Advantageously the mouth of the concave structure is rectangular in shape with trapezoidal ends whose greater base is formed by the short sides of the rectangle.
In one type of execution a tubular connection is fixed to the end of the arm, to fit onto the lamp pole at the top of which is a decorative moulding.
Advantageously, at a short distance from the mouth, there is a continuous raised rib on the outside of the concave structure; this extends onto the arm and surrounds the tubular connection whose upper end is of a smaller diameter into which a decoratively-shaped top may be fitted.
In another execution the street light here described is placed at the upper end of a pole that in turn carries a vertical lamp for street lighting whose shape can be rounded or square.
In another execution an orthogonal base is fixed to the end of the longitudinal arm to which a wall-mounted lamp can be applied.
In another type of execution the vertical sheet that forms the luminous plate is replaced by another which may be transparent or semi-transparent and that covers the mouth of the street lamp allowing light to pass from the source provided.
The invention offers evident advantages.
The association between road signs with publicity messages or other indications and street lamps is of considerable interest not only for practical reasons but also for those of cost as in many cases city lighting may also illuminate the signs referred to above.
All this is possible without encountering problems of bulk or of regulations governing the positioning of these signs, in view of the versatile nature of the different applications, pole or wall-mounted, or simply for illumination.
Characteristics and purposes of the above invention will be made still clearer by the following examples of its execution illustrated by diagrammatically drawn figures.